Dress club

My friend Suzanne invited me to join a group of her friends who get together at the beginning of each month to eat and drink and have a night away from being moms and wives. The other thing they do: give away money.

Each participant contributes $20. In the case of our group of 9, that means the pot is $180. At each meeting, our names are thrown in a hat and the hostess picks one (past winners can't throw their names in again). What does the lucky winner get? Why, $180 of course!

This is no simple windfall; there are rules: no spending on bills, stuff for hubby, children or practical things for the house. You must spend it on yourself.

I went to the inaugural meeting, but unemployed at the time, merely had a drink, played the games and made some new friends. But newly employed in December, I decided to throw 20 bucks in the pot and join. Lucky me: I won!

The first thing I did was book a pedicure and leg waxing. Then I had a make-up lesson and bought some new eyeshadow and lipstick. Finally, I bought myself a new pair of shoes. Doesn't sound like much, but it added up to $180. And I loved every minute.

Friday night Suzanne helped me take my turn as hostess (her living room is bigger than mine). We asked everyone to bring fruit and whipped up a big pot of chocolate fondue to go with it. We also polished off the champagne left from New Year's (well, one person in particular, but she seems to have a hard time letting her glass sit empty for very long any time I've seen her). You wouldn't think we'd want chocolate so soon after the biggest candy season of the year, but with all that fruit, it was a nice change. And we had some cheese and pretzels for a salty antidote, in case anyone wanted. Weirdest combination of the evening: chocolate drizzled on a graham wafer, topped with blue cheese.

The winner of the January money is Suzanne's neighbour Sonja. She's planning to spend it on her upcoming trip to her in-laws on Salt Spring Island. Can't wait to hear about it!